Aug 26 2009
48 Hour Wrap Up
I wanted to get this post up earlier, but I had to wait until the awards were posted on the 48 Hour Film Project site so I could link to it. Or I thought I should, anyway, because in prior years Honorable Mentions were given for the awards and I was curious if we picked any of those up. They didn’t give them out, so waiting was entirely unnecessary. Anyway, preface complete, post begin.
Last Friday, August 21st, was the Best Of screening for the 48 Hour Film Project. Our film, “co workers” was in the running. That much we knew. We just didn’t know what award we’d gotten. The awards for the 48 run from the specific (Best End Title Credits, Best Use Of Required Line Of Dialogue) to the more typical (Best Direction, Best Editing). This was my first award competition I’d ever been party to, so I was understandably a mess.
Thirteen films made the list. There were three from my screening group, including our film, but the rest I hadn’t seen. The films were screened before the awards were given, so I spent the time when I was not insanely nervous trying to game which awards would be given to whom. It passed the time.
We won one award: Best Use of Character, which you should read to mean “We took the character we had to use and used him really well.” I spent a couple of days struggling with the award, trying to figure out how proud of it I should be. As a filmmaker, you hope you win a more generic, more filmmakery award like editing or acting or direction, and not something that feels so specific to this one contest. But on reflection, Best Use of Character could be read as a bit of a writing award and a bit of an acting award. It means we did something right, I suppose. And walking up on a stage to be handed a shiny paper certificate is an ego boost.
Congratulations to all of the winners, and to everyone else who managed to get a film together in 48 hours. Special congratulations to Wrecking Crew Media for “A Christmas Miracle”, which was chosen as the best film in Pittsburgh. They’ll be going on to the international competition. Do us proud.
If you haven’t seen “co workers” yet, give it a watch. We’re really proud of the work we did and we’ll be sending it out to film festivals to see if anyone thinks we did something worthwhile.
I thought your film was well written. I was a member of Team 47 and my first year participating in the 48 hour film project. It’s hard to digest how others view ones work. I would guess you are not alone in wondering what the “award” means since judging can be completly subjective. I enjoyed reading your posting.
Peacoe